The cost of publishing

At Sidestone Press we believe that information and research should be available to all, and never hidden behind a paywall. Many of our books are of a specialist nature and are often richly illustrated, making them costly to produce when compared to the revenues they generate from sales.

While this might deter most publishers, we believe good science should always have a chance to be published. As such, we ask for a contribution in the publishing costs – a variable rate dependent on the number of words/images/tables – in order to provide worldwide availability of our books in print, but also to offer free access.

All our books can be read on our website for free upon publication, as well as made available for free download after 4 years (Standard Open Access). For clients who wish their books to be available for free download sooner, we also offer two additional Open Access models (Gold and Silver Open Access).

Please note that this is our normal procedure for typical academic books. We do sometimes make exceptions, and in some cases can also help you obtain funding and subsidies for publication. So do not let the costs described here deter you – we urge you to contact us so we can explore the options!

Contribution to Publishing Costs

The contribution to the publishing costs is mainly intended to cover the basic costs of layout and design. This includes graphics editing, cover design, typesetting and so on. Thanks to our innovative production process, we are able to keep such costs relatively low, and the required contribution is directly based on the number of words, images and tables of the book. For an average book with 250 pages (100,000 words, 50 figures, 5 tables), this is about €2500,- (excl. VAT, incl 20 printed copies).

Please feel free to fill out our Apply for Publication form for a customized quote, bearing in mind that a large complicated book will cost more to create than a small, simple one.

Open Access Models

At Sidestone we love Open Access, and allowing free access to our books is one of our core values. In order to avoid charging the steep rates that most publishers do for this service, we have implemented a stepped rate. In addition to our ‘contribution to thepublishing costs’, we offer three options for making your book freely downloadable on our website. We stress that in all of our Open Access models authors, editors and contributors will receive PDFs of their book or papers which they may distribute freely without limitations.

All books published with us will be made available for free online reading upon publication and be made available for free downloads after 4 years at no additional costs (Standard Model).

If authors are keen to have their book downloadable for free sooner, they can select either our Silver Model (downloadable 1 year after publication, at a €2000 extra charge) or our Gold Model (downloadable immediately upon publication, at a €4000 extra charge). An extra charge applies to these two models. (note that many Universities and funding bodies offer specific subsidies to cover Open Access fees, all prices are excl. VAT).

Irrespective of which model you opt for, eventually your book will be freely available for download from the Sidestone website! And we will always provide you with a PDF e-book to share as you wish.